Suspender clip

ABSTRACT

A suspender clip for women&#39;&#39;s stockings which is formed from a strip of plastic material, the strip being divided into two parts by a fold line about which the two parts may be folded into faceto-face relationship. The part to one side of the line forms a base and part to the other side a tongue with a widened tip. The base has a keyhole opening through it of which the narrow part is not so broad as the tip of the tongue and the wider part will allow the passage of the tongue therethrough.

United States Patent lnventor 'Gusf'Allan 3757 Eaton Street, North Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada Appl. No. 872,106 Filed Oct. 29, 1969 Patented Aug. 10, 1971 SUSPENDER CLIP 6 Claims, 3 Drawing Figs.

05. Cl 24/245 FF Int.Cl A44!) 21/00 Field ol'Search 24/245 FF, 245 F, 243 HE, 263 HE, 245 R, 246, 247, 245 A; 2/ 3 35 336 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS a 824,332 6/1906 Barnum 24/245 FFUX 3,422,504 1/1969 Brown 24/245 A Primary ExaminerDonald Griffin AltorneyFetherstonhaugh & Co.

ABSTRACT: A suspender clip for women's stockings which is formed from a strip of plastic material, the strip being divided into two parts by a fold line about which the two parts may be folded into face-to-face relationship. The part to one side of the line forms a base and part to the other side a tongue with a widened tip. The base has a keyhole opening through it of which the narrow part is not so broad as the tip of the tongue and the -wider part will allow the passage of the tongue therethrough.

Pa tented Aug. 10,- 1971 INVENTOR GUST ALLAN SUSPENDER CLIP BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention is concerned with a suspender clip particularly for womens stockings.

The most common suspender clip comprises a IJ-shaped wire loop with a strip of material carrying a fastening knob adapted to be secured by engagement in the narrow curve of the U-shaped loop. This type of clip has several disadvantages perhaps the most troublesome of which is its bulkiness which can cause the clip to show through the outer garments.

Attempts have been made to simplify the manufacture of these clips and to improve their structure and one such attempt is described in US. Pat. No. 3,362,051 issued .Ian. 9, I968 to Aleksandri Nikkinen. The Nikkinen clip can be described, in terms more related to the present invention than to those of the aforementioned patent specification, as having a base and a tongue connected together at a hinge line so that they may be brought into face-to-face relationship. The tongue is bent at its free so that its tip is in a plane parallel to, but

offset from the plane of the remainder of the tongue. The base I has an opening for cooperation with the tip of the tongue and that opening is formed in a recess within which the tip of the tongue is accommodated when it is passed through the opening. The bent section of the tonguecooperates with the upper edge of the recess at the opening in the base to entrap the material of a stocking between them and thus firmly support the stocking in position. In the Nikkinen clip the tongue and the base are provided with slits close to the hinge line which are in register when the tongue and base are brought into facetoface relationship and then by passing a loop strap through the slits and stitching the strap to form a loop, the clip may be secured to a garment.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention there is provided a suspender clip which comprises a generally planar strip of flexible and resilient material which is divided into two parts by a hinge line about which the strip can be folded to bring the two parts into face-to-face relationship. The part to one side of the hinge line comprises a tongue and the part to the other side of the hinge line fonns a base. The base has a keyhole opening therethrough and the tongue has a tip which is widened and of such size as to pass through the wide part of the keyhole opening but not to pass through the narrow part of that opening. With such an arrangement the material of the stocking is laid across the keyhole opening and the tip of the tongue passed through the widened portion of that opening taking with it the material of the stocking. Thus, the stocking will be firmly supported as it cannot pass between the widened tip of the tongue and the narrow portion of the keyhole opening against which that widened portion of the tip rests.

By the adoption of this type of clip one is able to avoid the necessity of forming the tip of the tongue into a bend and the recessing of the base as in the Nikkinen clip.

Preferably, there is an opening formed in the base close to the hinge line of such width as to allow the tip of the tongue to pass therethrough. The tongue is fitted through that opening so that it fonns, close to the hinge line, a loop within which a simple metallic tag can be inserted to attach the clip to a garment. This has the advantage over the Nikkinen device that the clip need not be positioned during the machining of the garment but can be attached thereafter. Further the clip can be replaced should it break, quite simply without having to cut away stitching and make new stitching.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS An embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which,

FIG. I is a perspective view of the clip as it may be attached to a garment,

FIG. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of FIG. I, and

FIG. 3 is a view showing the clip folded out.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The clip comprises a strip 10 of resilient and flexible material such as polypropylene or nylon, which is divided by a hinge line 11 into a base part 12 and a narrow tongue 13. The base has, towards that end thereof most remote from the hinge line ll, a keyhole'opening 14 with its wide part 15 nearest to the hinge line 11 and its narrow part 16 closer to the free end of the base. 1

Closer to the hinge line 11 a second opening 17 is formed in the base and this is elongated and extends transversely of the base.

To the tongue side of the hinge line I1 there is a first portion 18 of similar width to the width of the base and that portion is immediately adjacent to the hinge line. Portion l8 tapers to a narrow portion 20 and forms shoulders 19 at the junction of the narrow portion 20 and the wider portion 18.

Further from the hinge line 11 the narrow portion 20 tapers to a narrow tongue 21 which terminates in a wide tip 22. There are formed between the tongue 2l and the tip 22 inwardly facing shoulders 23.

' To provide a grip between a stocking, part of which is illustrated at 24, and the tongue when manipulating the clip for fastening, it is convenient to form pips 25 on the tongue, but any roughening of the surface of the tongue would serve this purpose.

In assembling the clip of this invention, the tip 22 of the tongue 21 is passed through the opening 17 and'is drawn through that opening until the shoulders 19 wedge against the transverse edges of the opening. In this way the side edges of the portion 20 of the tongue part prevent any lateral movement of the tongue relatively to the base and the shoulders 19 prevent the tongue part from being drawn further through the opening so as to form a bulge in that area.

It will be appreciated that the metal tag 30, such as is illustrated in FIG. I, will be positioned prior to passing the tongue through the opening 17. With other types of tags of the kind, for example, having an open-ended slot, the tag could be positioned after the formation of the loop.

The suspender is then ready for use. The welt of stocking 24 is placed between the tongue tip 22 and the base so as to extend over the keyhole opening 14. The tongue is then bowed outwardly and the tip presented to the widened portion 15 of the keyhole opening and passed therethrough. The natural resilience of the material of the clip will then cause the tip of the tongue to move downwardly with a portion of the stocking behind the base and this movement can be assisted by finger pressure. Thereafter the stocking is firmly locked in the suspender clip it being unable to pass the shoulders 23 of the tip of the tongue for they lie behind the narrow portion 16 of the keyhole opening in the base. To release the stocking from the clip all that is needed is for the wearer to take the free end of the base and pull it upwardly and outwardly and this can easily be done with one hand.

It will be appreciated that the clip of the present invention is readily formed either by extrusion or by molding and that it provides a simple and convenient means for suspending stockings. It does not involve the formation of recesses in the base and bends in the tongue and it will be relatively flat when in use and thus the problem of making bulges which might be visible through the outer clothing of the wearer would not exist.

I claim:

I. A suspender clip comprising a generally planar, flexible and resilient strip divided into two parts by a hinge line about which the strip can be folded to bring the two parts into faceto-face relationship, the part to one side of the hinge line comprising a tongue and the part to the other side of the hinge line forming a base having a free end and having a keyhole opening therethrough and spaced from the hinge line, said keyhole opening having a wide part and a narrow part extending away from said wide part towards the free end of base, the tongue having a widened tip of such size as to pass through the wide part of the keyhole opening without twisting but not to pass through the narrow part of the opening, said tongue being of such length as to locate the tip thereof opposite said narrow part of the opening.

2. A suspender clip as claimed in claim 1 in which an opening is formed in the base close to the hinge line, the opening being of such width as to allow the tip of the tongue to pass therethrough and thus form a loop close to the hinge line for attachment of the clip to a garment.

3. A suspender clip as claimed in claim 2 in which said strip is formed on the tongue side of the hinge line with a portion narrower than the base and wider than the tongue and located to pass through the opening in the base close to the hinge line to align the tongue with the keyhole opening.

4. A suspender clip as claimed in claim 3 in which said strip is formed with a second portion between said narrow portion and the base of a similar width to the base, said second portion having side shoulders inclined inwardly to said narrow portron.

5. A suspender clip as claimed in claim I in which the tip of the tongue forms a pair of shoulders inclined inwardly towards the hinge liner 6. A suspender clip as claimed in claim 1 in which the surface is roughened of the tongue which faces the base when the tongue tip has been passed through the keyhole opening. 

1. A suspender clip comprising a generally planar, flexible and resilient strip divided into two parts by a hinge line about which the strip can be folded to bring the two parts into faceto-face relationship, the part to one side of the hinge line comprising a tongue and the part to the other side of the hinge line forming a base having a free end and having a keyhole opening therethrough and spaced from the hinge line, said keyhole opening having a wide part and a narrow part extending away from said wide part towards the free end of base, the tongue having a widened tip of such size as to pass through the wide part of the keyhole opening without twisting but not to pass through the narrow part of the opening, said tongue being of such length as to locate the tip thereof opposite said narrow part of the opening.
 2. A suspender clip as claimed in claim 1 in which an opening is formed in the base close to the hinge line, the opening being of such width as to allow the tip of the tongue to pass therethrough and thus form a loop close to the hinge line for attachment of the clip to a garment.
 3. A suspender clip as claimed in claim 2 in which said strip is formed on the tongue side of the hinge line with a portion narrower than the base and wider than the tongue and located to pass through the opening in the base close to the hinge line to align the tongue with the keyhole opening.
 4. A suspender clip as claimed in claim 3 in which said strip is formed with a second portion between said narrow portion and the base of a similar width to the base, said second portion having side shoulders inclined inwardly to said narrow portion.
 5. A suspender clip as claimed in claim 1 in which the tip of the tongue forms a pair of shoulders inclined inwardly towards the hinge line.
 6. A suspender clip as claimed in claim 1 in which the surface is roughened of the tongue which faces the base when the tongue tip has been passed through the keyhole opening. 